In a certain type of computer games such as adventure games and role-playing games, play progresses in accordance with a story, which in turn follows a scenario. The scenario is composed of a plurality of sub-scenarios. In a typical adventure game, the story progresses in accordance with the scenario. For example, when sub-scenarios 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . N are provided, the game proceeds In accordance with the sequence of the sub-scenarios 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . N. In such a game, a player must sequentially clear the stages corresponding to the sub-scenarios in order to proceed to the next stage. Such a game is called a single-scenario-type game.
Meanwhile, a game whose story proceeds according to one of a plurality of possible scenarios is called a multi-scenario-type game. When sub-scenarios 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . N are provided, the story can proceed according to any of a plurality of possible scenarios, as shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, the sub-scenarios enclosed by "{}" are followed in one of a plurality of possible sequences. That is, the story sometimes proceeds in the following sequence:
sub-scenario 1.fwdarw.sub-scenario 2.fwdarw.sub-scenario 3 and sometimes proceeds in the following sequence: PA1 sub-scenario 3.fwdarw.sub-scenario 2.fwdarw.sub-scenario 1.
As compared with the single-scenario-type game, the multi-scenario-type game allows greater flexibility in terms of story development.
Battle, together with story development, lends interest to the game. There are provided scenes in which a player character encounters and fights enemy characters in the course of an adventure. In such a game, a parameter representing the strength of the player character or the strength of an enemy character is called a "level."
The level of the player character is increased when the player character defeats one or a plurality of enemy characters. The game can be designed such that the level of the player character increases in different manners depending on the level of the defeated enemy character(s). For example, the game may be designed such that in the case of monster A, the level of the player character is increased by one unit when the player character defeats ten monsters, and in the case of monster B, the level of the player character is increased by one unit when the player character defeats three monsters. If the level of the player character is increased while the level of the enemy character(s) is maintained constant, the difficulty of the game decreases with the progress of the story. In order to solve such a problem, the level of a newly appearing enemy character is set in accordance with the current level of the player character. In the single-scenario-type game, since the story develops in ascending sequence of scenario number, the level of the enemy character(s) can be easily set for each sub-scenario. For examples, since a player must clear a stage corresponding to sub-scenario n in order to move to the next stage corresponding to sub-scenario n+1, the level of the player is expected to have increased to some degree when the player has moved to the next stage. Therefore, a desirable result is obtained if the game is designed such that the level of the enemy character(s) is set in accordance with the increased level of the player.
However, in a multi-scenario-type game, since the sequence of the sub-scenarios is not constant, and the level of a player at the beginning of a sub-scenario cannot be predicted, the level of the enemy character(s) cannot be set in accordance with the level of the player. Therefore, in the conventional multi-scenario-type game, the level of the enemy character(s) is set according to one of the following methods.
Method 1: The level of the enemy character(s) is set in accordance with the ascending order of scenario numbers.
Method 2: A relative level for each enemy character corresponding to the level of the player character is prepared, and for each battle (encounter between the player character and an enemy character) the level of an enemy character is set in relation to the level of the player character.
In Method 1, the level of the enemy character is set in the same manner as in the single-scenario-type game. In such a setting method, no problem arises when the story progresses in the sequence of sub-scenarios 1.fwdarw.2.fwdarw.3.fwdarw.. . . However, when the story progresses in the sequence of sub-scenarios 3.fwdarw.2.fwdarw.1.fwdarw.. . . , the player must fight with a far stronger enemy character from the beginning, making the game difficult for the player from the beginning. Accordingly, the player can play the game with interest only when the story proceeds in the sequence of sub-scenarios 1.fwdarw.2.fwdarw.3.fwdarw.. . . thus making the story the same as in the single-scenario-type game.
Method 2 seems good, since the level of each enemy character is set in accordance with the current level of the player character. For example, when the level of the player character is 5 and the relative level of an enemy character is +1, the level of the enemy character, with which the player character fights, becomes 6 (=5+1), so that the player must always fight an enemy whose level is one unit higher. The problem presented by this method is that the player loses the fulfillment that would otherwise result from the increase in the level of the player character.
That is, when the level of the player character is increased the level of the enemy character(s) increases accordingly, with the result that the enemy character is always stronger than the player character. Therefore, the player is forced to undergo severe battles, and feels no improvement in his/her skill, with the result that the player loses interest in the game.
As described above, the conventional method for setting the level of enemy characters in multi-scenario-type game has drawbacks in that the level of a player character is not reflected in the levels of enemy characters, and the player must always fight enemy characters whose levels are higher than that of the player character. Therefore, the player's skill cannot be reflected in the game, and therefore the player cannot experience fulfillment and satisfaction, so that the player eventually loses interest in the game itself.
The ideal story development in a computer game is such that as the level of a player character increases the level of enemy characters also increases, and such that an increase in the level of the player is directly reflected in the game. For example, there develops a situation in which a player first fights a relatively weak enemy character, and when the player defeats the enemy character, the player feels that the player character has became stronger. After the story develops in this manner for a certain period of time, the player seeks a stronger enemy character.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of setting the level of an enemy character in such a way that the story develops in the above-described ideal manner In a multi-scenario-type computer game.